Flying Car moves into Phase 2 of flight tests

Terrafugia’s prototype street-legal aircraft, the Transition, has moved into Phase 2 of its six planned phases of flight-testing, said company officials, who note the prototype won’t be at next week’s AirVenture in Oshkosh as they don’t want to disrupt flight tests.

Phase 2 flight tests are a precursor to the start of documented ASTM compliance flights and focus on aircraft performance envelope expansion, airspeed system calibration, control surface effectiveness, and power-on and power-off stalls, company officials noted. Drive testing of the Transition prototype is proceeding concurrent with flight-testing, officials add.

“We are progressing well through both flight and drive testing. Due to our aggressive drive and flight test schedule, we will not be bringing the Transition prototype to AirVenture in Oshkosh, later this month,” said Terrafugia COO Anna Mracek Dietrich. “Our executive team will be staffing our booth at AirVenture this year while our engineering team continues testing activities with the prototype.”

The company stated that suspending testing to prepare, transport, and display the Transition at AirVenture would disrupt the testing and certification schedule.

“Getting the Transition into production is our top priority; we hope all our friends at Oshkosh will understand,” said Dietrich. “Our booth will feature photos and videos from the Transition’s flight tests. We invite everyone to stop by, say hi, and get an update on our progress.”

“We’re thrilled to be going to Oshkosh, and be able to continue testing at the same time,” said Terrafugia VP Sales Cliff Allen. “Continuing our march towards certification is the best way to grow our order book and satisfy our existing investors and reservation holders. Since the first flight of our production prototype in late March, our order book has grown by over 10%, and our early delivery Premier Edition program is nearly sold out.”

On Monday, July 23, from 2:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. at Forum Pavilion 11, Terrafugia CEO/CTO Carl Dietrich will explain more about the aircraft and the process of bringing the Transition to market.